The prior art teaches a deformable rock anchor that is deformation tolerant, which is used in highly stressed rock masses to achieve reinforcement of these stressed rock masses and prevent large, sudden or catastrophic deformation, movement, dilation or failure of this rock mass.
This rock bolt includes an elongate cylindrical stem, with a threaded portion at a borehole surface portion of the stem, to which a nut and washer or bearing plate may be attached, and three or more stem portions serially extending along the length of the stem with each stem portion followed by an integral anchor, being of shorter extend than the stem portions.
Each integral anchor is capable of locally anchoring the rock bolt in a grouted borehole and each stem portion is adapted to elongate, move and slip relatively to the grouted borehole surround and, by the work done by this movement, absorb energy from the surrounding rock and constrain local rock deformation movement, whilst the rock bolt remains locally anchored by each integral anchor.
The rock bolt of the earlier invention is therefore principally defined by having at least three integral anchors and therefore, in situ, is capable of being locally anchored at three discrete localities along the length of the borehole. These anchor points exclude anchoring, by the bolt and bearing plate, at an entrance of the borehole.
The problem experienced with such a rock bolt is that it is reliant, for local anchoring, on the interaction of the anchors on the grout within the borehole.